During Wednesday night's coronavirus task force briefing, Vice President Mike Pence said the White House is monitoring the coronavirus in Philadelphia.

"I spoke today to Governor Tom Wolf and as we begin to see early trend lines in Philadelphia, I assured him that we were going to continue to flow resources and support to that community," said Pence. "But our message to the people of the Philadelphia area is now more than ever, practice the social distancing so that Philadelphia and to some extent, even Pittsburgh, do not have to endure what other communities before them have had to endure."

The vice president's comments were echoed on Wednesday morning by Dr. Deborah Birx who is leading the White House response to COVID-19.

During a news conference on Wednesday, Dr. Farley reacted to Dr. Birx's statement about Philadelphia.

"I don't know exactly what numbers she is looking at, and I doubt she is looking at numbers as updated as we are...but at the moment, things are looking a little bit better," he said.

Farley added, "I'm glad she's concerned about Philadelphia."

Farley said the city continues to see cases among clusters or congregate settings including nursing homes and jails. Sixty-two inmates have tested positive for the virus, and 32 people have died from the virus while in a nursing home.

Farley said he is hopeful the number of positive cases will begin to plateau in the not too distant future, however, the number of deaths will continue to rise over the next days and weeks.

Both Philadelphia officials and the White House stressed the importance of maintaining the stay-at-home strategy to avoid the worst - and to stave off what she said could be a second wave of infections.